The Smoker Prepares Hot Smoked Salmon

Cough, cough, splutter, cough…….. Wheeeze, cough, cough, wheeeeezzeeee. Yes. That was me every morning. I used to be a very heavy smoker. Not that I have ever been ‘very heavy’ in the weighing scales sense. Nor in the deep thinking department either. That would have made me a very heavy, smoker. In plain language, I used to smoke a lot. An awful lot…

When I was in secondary school, we 5th and 6th years (16 to 18 year olds) had our own smoking room. At break time, we would cram ourselves into the small unfurnished chamber and drag the guts out of a couple of Major or Rothmans before returning to our youthful education. After school and college, in my early days in the advertising workforce, I was a 60 a day man.

I quit a number of times but was dragged back (pun intended) almost as often as I stubbed out the habit (that one too). I eventually got sense and gave them up for good. The day after my last cigarette, I sat on my bed and cried. I wept like a baby for “just one more”. Strangely, that gave me the inner strength to finally decide that I would never, ever smoke again.

That was over a quarter of a century ago and I am now about to break that tearful, youthful resolution.

“Don’t do it” I hear you cry. But, I’m not that daft, really. I am going to smoke. But, I am going to prepare Hot Smoked Salmon in my new smoker, just arrived after internet ordering from the comfort of the couch. I got the impetus to order the smoker from Stefan over at Stefan Gourmet, following our excellent visit to Stefan in Amsterdam earlier this year.

The ingredients are all in the picture. As is my brand new smoker.

The first thing to do is to chop the onion and garlic.

I got to do this outside on the first lovely day of the year.

Next I made my brine. I used a few spoons of salt in the water, stirring it in until it would not dissolve any more.

If you like this pouring shot, you will love one further down…

Then I added a few spoons of muscovado sugar.

Plenty of sugar needed to balance the salt.

When most of the sugar was stirred in, I poured it into a non-metallic dish. You will forgive me using two pouring shots here, I know.

This one qualifies as pouring porn.

The brine is a nice dark brown colour.

Next we add the onion, bay leaf, garlic and black pepper. Then we gently immerse the salmon in the mixture.

I left the salmon in the brine for six hours. I took it out and pated it dry. Then I placed it on a rack in the oven and turned on the fan. I left it in there for two hours, air drying without heat. This allows a sheen called a pellicle to form on the fish. This is essential for flavour.

I added the wood dust to the smoker.

Then the salmon was added and the burners were lit.

The smoking needs to be done outdoors. The beechwood has a strong flavour.

Twenty five minutes in the smoker and we ended up with this beautiful salmon.

Love the pouring shots. Baby Lady is going to have to sharpen her game if she’s going to keep up with you. 😀 Love the technique and the final product looks absolutely delicious. All of my smoking I do outside. If I got one of those stovetop smokers 1) I would set the kitchen on fire; and 2) drive my neighbors nuts with the fire alarm constantly going off. 😮 In law school I got up to 1-1/2 packs/day. I quit when my namesake, as a toddler, asked me if I didn’t love him because I was damaging my health from smoking. 😮 He was cute back then 😉 and that was roughly 25 years ago.

Great to be off the demon weed. I was particularly pleased with that first brine pour shot. A stroke of luck as I was also pressing the button on the camera. On a side note, would you be interested in joining an international smoker chalenge / smoke-off, if I were to bring it together? No pressure…

It is a €50 special bough online from http://www.quicktackle.ie. The camera is a different story. It’s a Canon 5D Mk11 with a fixed 50 mm. 1.8 lens. I get lucky too as I am not a great photographer by any standard.

Superb result – thoroughly professional looking and, no doubt, tasting. I hadn’t realised these bits of kit existed. I can get hot smoked salmon fresh from the local fish deli, but he tends to overheat it and so becomes a bit dry.

As a longtime fan of pouring-sprinkling-scattering and dropping porn, I approve of your shots. Only two? We don’t have a dedicated smoker, but we do have a Big Green Egg, and we frequently give bluefish or wild salmon the low-and-slow smoky approach. Cough on! Ken

egg me on|5th June 2013

You kill me with those pouring shots. Pouring porn! I love it. And I love that you made such a wonderful recipe for your first smoker meal. It seems as though everyone I know is getting a smoker this season; I’m quite jealous. But I’ll just have to live vicariously through you guys. Nice work.

Hi Connor, delicious fish & delicious pics. We actually own on of those at home (but I’ve) given up on using it and decided to smoke on the BBQ with foil wrapped chicory chips instead. Your photos make it look so easy, what kind of burner do you use? My lovely bloke insists on trying the mentholated spirits version, but the excessive flames freaked me out! ny advice, greatly appreciated 🙂

You scare me for a second with that picking up smoking again thing. The salmon looks perfect! This smoker is certainly a great investment. And you are seriously playing with shutter speed. Beautiful moments in those pouring shots!

You are so funny and entertaining. I love the smoker – so quick and easy! I’m going to be needing one of those. And the “pour shots” – very cool – you are a great photographer. The salmon looks delicious!!

So glad you kicked that habit Connor! Your salmon looks gorgeous! Looking forward to more of your smokin’ ideas… I believe I can create a smoker with my Weber charcoal BBQ. Can’t wait to give this one a go!

I got friends in advertising who smoke like the chimney! And I’m sure the folks at Cooper Price smoke about 120 a day! Whats up with all the advertising folks? Glad you gave that bad old habit a kick. Smoking a fish is something I have never done. I might give it a go. Inspired by you, I did buy a pasta maker which is still in its box – think I should give that a go first! hen smoked salmon carbonara.